A college is the basic school you go to after high school, and in general, you "go to college". A university is a collection of colleges. For example, I go to the University of Wisconsin but I am in the College of Engineering (one of 9 colleges that make up the University). I can take any course offered by any college in the university. To graduate, I must satisfy the requirements of the university (there are few) and also my college (which are where most of the requirements are). Each college in a university is quite unique -- the College of Engineering has vastly different requirements than the College of Letters and Science. In addition, you apply to the college, it is impossible to be a student in the university without being a student of one of the colleges.

There are also many colleges which are not part of a university.

Generally, in the US you refer to your schooling as "college". It would seem funny to say "I go to university" in the US. Saying "I want to go to college" doesn't imply you won't be going to a university -- in fact, most good colleges are associated with universities -- but again, you "want to go to college" because that's simply the wording people use.

Sometimes, college is used to refer to the undergraduate programs (i.e. the programs which confer a Bachelor's degree) and university is used to mean an institution offering both undergraduate and graduate school. But I have heard "college" applied often to graduate school as well.

Well, 2 year colleges don't confer a degree like a BS or BA (they do confer some kind of degree but I forget what).

Usually, though, what you do is go to a 2 year college for your basic courses, then do 2 more years at a university to get a BA or BS degree. This comes in handy often for a few reasons:

1) 2 year colleges aren't nearly as picky about who they take -- so you can get in even with poor academic records, and universities will usually take anyone who finishes a 2-year program.

2) 2 year colleges are usually massively cheaper

The downsides? Lower quality education, and there will be little in the way of nonstandard courses. They just do the plain vanilla stuff, like math, science, a few languages (usually spanish, french, and german), some arts classes, and not a whole lot more. With a 4-year college/university, you get a much wider range of classes, and the schoolwork is more focused.

I wouldn't say it's common to do this, but it's not UNcommon either. Maybe 20%? go first to a 2 year school, 80% straight into a 4 year program. Those percentages are my rough estimates, so they're hardly scientifically accurate, but that's a ballpark figure.

In my country a university is for educations for 4 years or more, a college is for only 3 years. when you graduate from uni you'll have an "licentiaat"(dutch word), doctor or prof degree. when you graduate from college you'll have "graduaat"(another dutch word) degree. I think Licentiaat can be compared with a Master degree and "graduaat" with batchelor. But there are exeptions. I'm studying to be an engeneer (4 years in my country) and I'll have a degree equal to a uni degree but I'm in college now.

So I think basicly: in my country uni is harder and has a higher degree.

I thought colleges are place you go when you don't have good enough grades to make it to the university... I want to go to "university" not "college"... ^.^ There is a college in my neighborhood, and most people who have bad grades go there...

I thought something like that too, but when I was reading the application for MIT, they referred themselves as "College", there was also a question "Which College do you want to apply to?" in the Application form for Stanford University

Michelle is Canadian though, correct? In Canada (and, I think, Australia) the words don't mean quite the same. Nobody in the US ever says "I want to go to university", people would look at you funny if you did.

I think it's a matter of pretty much every english speaking country defining "college" and "university" differently. Although, "university", or a college that is part of a university, is almost always "better" than a standalone college.

I thought colleges are place you go when you don't have good enough grades to make it to the university...

Heh... I suppose one could look at it that way.

Here in Canada it is quite common to hear someone say "I want to go to university". A University and a College are both quite different. Generally, colleges have much lower requirements, which means people with lower grades will most likely go to a college instead of a university that likely will not accept them.

Universities here are not a collection of colleges. The number of years you spend there will vary depending on what program you are taking and a lot of other variables. It is possible to begin your program at a college and then "upgrade" to a University to complete your degree. As The V mentioned, theres rather a lot of difference between the systems of any two countries.

Here in the Uk degree courses are usually 3 years. Colleges can mean anything (eg the local art college) but a university is where you do a degree (you used to also be able to do degrees at Polytechnics as well though they usually required lower grades - but they have also now renamed themselves to universities - but they are not "proper" universities - though that may be down to academic snobbery) .

However it gets confusing in that Oxford, Cambridge and London Universities (and maybe Durham as well I cannot remember) are split up into colleges - so if you apply to one of these places you actually apply to a specific college even though your degree is then awarded by the University.

Do not meddle in the ways of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup